Edward II And Living End–from The Collection Chosen To Screen At Sundance Film Festival

Park City, UT, December 14, 2007–Sundance Institute announced that Derek Jarman’s EDWARD II (1991) and Gregg Araki’s LIVING END (1992) will be shown at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival to mark the tenth anniversary of the Festival’s From the Collection category. Drawing from one of the most important archives of American independent cinema, the films exemplify the independent spirit and artistry on display at Sundance Film Festival. The 2008 Sundance Film Festival runs January 17-27, 2008, in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden, and Sundance, Utah. The complete list of films is available at www.sundance.org/festival [www.sundance.org].

Derek Jarman’s modern day Elizabethan film, EDWARD II and Gregg Araki’s hedonistic road story, LIVING END embody the artistry and creativity housed within the Collection. Known as being a true artist, Jarman explores the aesthetics of cinema while using a classic tale as a vehicle. The lasting influence of Jarman is also highlighted at this year’s Festival in the World Documentary Competition film, DEREK. Gregg Araki’s film, LIVING END, was one of the first films to delve into the dangerous side of the AIDS crisis.

Since its inception in 1998, From the Collection has showcased classic films from such revolutionary directors as Joel Coen, Gus Van Sant, Jim Jarmush, and John Cassavettes. These influential films are part of an ongoing collective archive called the Sundance Collection at UCLA.

Launched in 1997, the Collection broke new ground by becoming the first archive devoted specifically to the preservation of independent cinema. The Collection not only fulfills a vital role in film preservation but also provides a central resource for those interested in the study of independent film. It is an important initiative of both the Sundance Institute and the UCLA Film & Television Archive, Sundance Collection to preserve the work of independent filmmakers.

“Despite the historical significance of independent films, acceptable prints are often difficult to locate, or in some cases impossible to find,” said John Nein, Programmer, Sundance Film Festival and From The Collection. “To create a living record, Sundance Institute partnered with UCLA to ensure that these films are preserved and remain accessible to fans and scholars of independent film.”

“Sundance and the UCLA Film & Television Archive share a common commitment to preserving independent films for future generations and to bringing them alive on the screen for new audiences,” said Robert Rosen, dean of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television.

Sundance Institute has joined with the UCLA Film & Television Archive to preserve and restore documentaries, narratives, shorts, festival films, and commercially released independent films. The Collection includes many films that originally came to life at Sundance Film Festival, as well as projects developed at Sundance Institute’s various filmmaker’s labs.

The Sundance Collection at UCLA has grown to nearly 500 titles, generously donated by individual filmmakers and eight founding donors: Fine Line Features, Gramercy Pictures, Miramax, New Line Cinema, October Pictures, Sony Pictures Classics, Strand Releasing, and Trimark Pictures. To supplement its growing library of films, the Collection also features a rare assemblage of data on the history of independent cinema.

Films screening in From the Collection:

EDWARD II (Director: Derek Jarman)–This exhilarating, challenging and often passionate adaptation of Christopher Marlowe’s sixteenth-century tragedy tell the tale of the young, newly crowned king of England, who bestows gifts titles, and all his devotion on his lover Gaveston, while neglecting his wife Isabella, as well as the affairs of state. This blatant favoritism incites her to conspire with the nobles and churchmen against him and ultimately leads to his downfall and disgrace.

LIVING END (Director: Gregg Araki)–A romantic, eccentric and defiant film set in a quasi-surrealistic dreamscape, marked by homophobia, mini-marts and monolithic parking structures. The two white protagonists, Jon and Luke, are disillusioned, apathetic, self-obsessed and prone to boredom. Moreover they are both HIV-positive.